


The Blue Queen

by Dream_Wreaver



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alice In Wonderland AU, F/M, Gift Fic, Sort Of, fluff and nonsense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 20:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15614211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Wreaver/pseuds/Dream_Wreaver
Summary: It's a weird world Nathalie wakes up in one morning. But it doesn't make her feelings any less real. Too bad she feels that way for the wrong man.





	The Blue Queen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seasonofthegeek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seasonofthegeek/gifts).



She was dreaming, she had to be dreaming. Because blue wasn’t her color, she hated dresses, and she  _ never _ wore her hair loose. The only conclusion Nathalie could come to was that she was dreaming. And now that she established that she had to be dreaming, Nathalie wondered what kind of substance she’d somehow gotten into her body that was causing _ this _ sort of hallucination. Why was she in blue? Why was she in a dress? Why was her hair loose with only a giant blue bow headband keeping it from falling into her eyes?

All these questions and one more. Where exactly in the dreamscape _ was _ she? The few times Nathalie was able to dream, it was always about completing more work at the office. Which was why she normally hated dreaming. It felt so horrible to have a dream of productivity, so realistic it felt real, only to wake up and come in to find the pile of work she thought she’d completed not only not done, but a new pile of last minute information and work dropped on her shoulders. She had always known that it wouldn’t be easy working directly under Gabriel Agreste, but she had at least assumed he would take on a good chunk of his own work. Well, that had all gone out the window once the Emilie event had occurred. The details of which, even Nathalie was unclear on. Whatever had happened was so terrible that Gabriel refused to speak of it, though Nathalie could surmise it was awful enough that he felt it warranted becoming a supervillain.

Maybe she shouldn’t be worried about that so much as where in dreams she was. That might be a good place to start if she seriously wanted some answers. Despite it being a dream Nathalie found she could move her arms and legs as easily as though she were awake. Movement came easily and soon she was covering a good chunk of ground. Then, she saw a rabbit, in clothing of all things, scurrying by. Logic dictated that she shouldn’t ask a rabbit for anything, but then logic also dictated that rabbits shouldn’t wear clothes and logic also wasn’t really applicable in dreams.

“Excuse me!” she called, “Mister Rabbit!”

But the rabbit either didn’t hear her or purposefully ignored her. He stopped only long enough to pull an impossibly large pocket watch from the tiny pocket on his waistcoat, look at it and fret, muttering over and over again, “I’m late!”

And so, trying to find answers Nathalie followed him until she found herself lost in a forest. There were signposts of course, but they pointed every which way and didn’t make any sense.

“Hello?” she called out to the nothingness, “Can anyone help me find my way?”

“Little Birdie’s lost her way eh?” a voice came from right next to her, but when Nathalie turned to face it there was no one there.

“Over here pretty Birdie,” the voice came again, this time from a different direction. The voice played this game several more times before Nathalie got fed up.

“Either show yourself or go away!” Nathalie snapped, “I’m in no mood for games.”

“So touchy Birdie,” the voice replied, “Look up,”

Nathalie did as it asked and watched as a figure slowly materialized on the branch. It looked human, but had the ears and tail of a cat flicking back and forth. Aside from his hair, which was blonde as could be, the rest of him was black, with green stripes along his sides to match the acidic green of his feline eyes. He looked a lot like,

“Chat Noir?” Nathalie tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Wrong Birdie, but good guess,” the Cat replied, “I’m the Cheshire Chat Noir, but most people call me Chess. And who, may I ask, are you?”

“I’m Nathalie,” Nathalie replied.

“ _ The _ Nathalie?” Chess questioned, “What an honor it is to meet you. So tell me Nathalie,” he purred out her name, “What brings you to this forest?”

“I was following a White Rabbit,” Nathalie explained, “Trying to find out where I am.”

“Well, that’s an easy one,” Chess replied, “You’re in Wonderland of course.”

Nathalie blinked once, twice, thrice, before laughing, “You must be joking. Wonderland isn’t real, this is all just a dream.”

“A dream is as real as you believe it to be,” Chess replied, “Now, do you still want to find the White Rabbit?”

Before Nathalie could answer she heard bickering coming through the trees. Two girls, dressed alike, but completely opposite in their color scheme and overall appearance came arguing through the woods. One dressed in red with black spots, the other in yellow with black stripes. The latter was blonde, and the former raven-haired. Short hair versus long hair and everything about them screamed opposite.

“Who are they?” Nathalie asked the cat.

“The Tweedles,” he replied, “Tweedle-Bee and Tweedle-Bug. Mind your tongue around them Birdie.” and then he was gone.

“W- Wait!” Nathalie called to the empty air, “Where are you going?” she got only a laugh sent on the breeze as a response. And that left her with the bickering twins. Wonderful.

“Well, well, well,” one of them said, stopping the argument long enough to notice her, “What do we have here?”

Nathalie turned to look at them, “I’m lost in these accursed woods and that stupid Cheshire cat wouldn’t tell me how to get out of here.”

“Oh,” the two chorused, “Well then,” Tweedle-Bee said, “If that’s what you want-”

“Then you’ll need directions,” Tweedle-Bug finished.

“Very well,” Nathalie agreed as she crossed her arms, “Since you two are clearly my only option, which way leads out?”

“That way,” they both said, each of them pointing in a different direction. When Nathalie questioned them on it, they pointed in the opposite direction and said, “This way then.”

“Isn’t there anyone who can give me a straight answer?” Nathalie moaned.

“There might be,” said Tweedle-Bug.

“Who do you mean?” asked Tweedle-Bee.

“You know who,” Tweedle-Bug nudged her twin.

“The White Queen?” Tweedle-Bee tilted her head, blonde ponytail swinging as she did.

“No, no, no,” Tweedle-Bug shook hers in response, tiny pigtails jumping up and down with the movement, “The…” suddenly she looked confused, as though she’d forgotten the word, “The… The Batter!” she finished finally, adding a decisive nod to her statement.

“We have a Batter?” Tweedle-Bee asked, “I thought we had a Ratter,”

“No!” Bug shook her head, “Wait, was it a Ratter? Or maybe it was a Matter?”

While they waxed on about words that rhymed with the one they wanted, never finding it, Nathalie decided to slip away before her brain began to rot. She wandered deeper and deeper into the wood full of gnarled looking trees that bent over as though they had grown only to subjugate themselves to the sky above. Eventually, Nathalie stumbled on a long dining table overlaid with a white cloth. Atop it numerous teapots, plates, and servings of treats were set. And at the very end of the table in a high-backed chair someone sat with a garish purple top hat angled low over their face. Nathalie was hesitant, but she needed to find a way out of here.

“Excuse me?” she said cautiously.

It woke the figure,and they lifted their head. Nathalie saw her boss, Gabriel Agreste, looking back at her. Although, if she were completely honest he looked nothing like himself at all. One eyelid was painted silver, the other a bloody red. His normally intact hair stuck out at odd angles from underneath his hat. He wore Hawkmoth’s brooch atop a candy striped bow tie, and he looked painted over like a clown. Though he had woken up, his eyes seemed a million miles away, until he noticed her. Then, his entire countenance brightened. He hopped to his feet and decided to take the shortest distance to her, which meant stepping along the tea table, crushing pastries and knocking china to the ground as he moved. He extended a hand to her and gleefully said,

“It’s you!”

Of course, just as everyone had been saying. She was Nathalie.  _ The  _ Nathalie. Whatever importance that held. Clearly this wasn’t really her boss, it was just another dream figment her mind had conjured up. None of this was real. At least, that’s how it seemed until he placed his lips against the back of her hand and kissed it reverently.

“Our Blue Queen has returned to us, oh glorious day!”

Nathalie blinked, “I’m sorry, what?”

“Don’t you remember dearest heart? You saved us when the White Queen died. She ever so wanted you to take her place, and take it you did my muchy one. But then you disappeared. Wherever did you go? Did you find out why a raven is like a writing desk while you were gone?”

He looked so earnest and open and vulnerable. As though he had missed her, dearly. Nathalie hadn’t seen the real Gabriel look like that for anyone in a long, long time. It caught her off guard, to be completely honest. Even if it was the ramblings of a madman in the guise of her employer.

“Dearest heart?” was all she could dumbly repeat.

“You! My Nathalie, wherever you went, did it splinter your mind? Have you gone as mad as me to not remember our vows?”

“Vows?”

“We are married my Nathalie,” his brows drew together in concern, “Oh dear, what has happened to you that you have forgotten so momumentous as that?”

“I,” Nathalie couldn’t believe it, “I think you may have the wrong Nathalie,” she offered.

“Sense!” Gabriel scoffed, “I would know you by your muchness anywhere. You are Nathalie!”

It was how any of their conversations went for the next indeterminate length of time. Nathalie would try to explain that she was not the Nathalie they had been looking for. In the meantime where she had an entire world to keep from descending into absolute chaos. Apparently there was some internal logic they ran on which had thus yet eluded her, but that was a digression for another day. The most difficult thing to get used to was the Gabriel Hatter. Her husband apparently. He was sweet, if not completely insane. And though he was technically King by fact of being consort of this world’s queen, he was far more content staying in his workshop as the royal milliner. He liked to make hats, and for her, dresses and trousers and blouses and anything Nathalie could ever want to wear. It was colorful, it was bold, and knowing as much as she did about fashion Nathalie knew it somehow correlated with stylistic choices the Gabriel she knew would have favored. His favorite for her to wear was a gown designed in reminiscence of a peacock. And he was earnest, so earnest and open and sincere. And instead of it being directed at Emilie, as Nathalie had remembered it, it was directed entirely at  _ her _ .

He liked to bring her tea in the middle of the day, all sorts of flavors that she had never heard of. He liked to present her with new clothes, even when she had too many he’d made already. He liked to help her relax in any way he could. He’d draw her baths, he’d gather flowers to calm her down, he’d stage silly nonsensical arguments with the Cheshire Chat simply to make her laugh. It was so unusual, but so sincere it made Nathalie melt. And little by little she began to stop wishing to find a way back to her own reality. She’d rather stay in this insane world with the wonderful mad man at her side.

But of course, good things never lasted. She was passing by a large mirror when she first heard it. Her reflection was tapping at the glass, asking to be let in. Frightened, Nathalie ran and tried to forget it. But then the dreams would come. Dreams where she would meet another her. But this Nathalie had a dark blue streak in her hair, and all she would do was complain about how boring the place where she was trapped was. It was a world where everyone relied on things making sense, a world where her husband was no longer hers, and was utterly obsessed with the white queen. They’d even had a child together. She missed her home. It often left Nathalie waking up in a cold sweat, chest heaving with fright. But Hatter was always there to calm and cajole her back to sleep.

But as time wore on the guilt began to build. And one day it all came to a head. The echoes from last night’s dream were reverberating in her head all morning. And when she saw Hatter approach her she couldn’t continue the lie anymore. She broke down in tears.

“I’m not her,” she cried, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Hatter had looked at her, confused.

With no other way of explaining it, Nathalie took him to the mirror where she’d first seen the other Nathalie. To them, the  _ real _ Nathalie. She apologized again, explaining that she had no idea how she’d woken up here. How she’d believed it all nothing more than a dream, one she’d expected to wake up from. How it got to a point where she hadn’t  _ wanted _ to leave. And all because of him.

And Hatter had tilted her chin up to look at him, “It’s alright Nathalie,” he said quietly, “I believe you wouldn’t trick someone on purpose. It’s what I like about you. You’re honest, and guileless. I like you, I really do,” and then he sighed, “But I  _ love _ her. And I’m sure you have someone missing you in your world. You need to go back.”

Nathalie let out a breath of laughter, “I think you’re being a little optimistic. In my world I’m just your assistant while you try to get Emilie back. In my world,  _ she’s _ the one you love, and I don’t know how I can go on knowing there’s a you like… well you.”

“Nathalie,” he took her by the shoulders, “Is the other me like this me, even a little?” Nathalie thought on it, then nodded. And Hatter smiled, “Then have no doubt that if you wish for that me’s love you will be able to get it. I did fall in love with this you, but it’s no good for any of us if we turn our backs on where we belong. I belong with  _ my _ Nathalie. And you belong with your Gabriel. Have faith, and have muchness my girl. And if you should ever want to find us again, we’re only a looking glass away.”

Nathalie smiled for her tears and nodded, “Okay,” she steeled herself, “I’m ready.”

She stood and faced her reflection. The blue-streaked Nathalie nodded and grew closer as Nathalie walked into the looking glass. And then through it. She found herself in an in between world, not in one world, or another. And there the other Nathalie was waiting for her, dressed in her usual business attire. They walked until they stood before each other, simply staring.

“He likes you, you know,” the other her said, “And he’s been worried this whole time. Why haven’t you been acting like yourself. I could hear him, talking to the butterflies, he wondered if you had found someone, and he was jealous. Have muchness, and you can do anything.”

“I wish I could,” Nathalie replied, “But I’m afraid it’s impossible.”

The other Nathalie gave her opposite a secret smile, “Want to know a secret?” she asked.

“What?”

“I like to dream up as many as six impossible things every day.” was her reply, “And if I can slay the Jabberwocky, you can do this.”

“I can’t,” Nathalie shook her head, “I don’t have the muchness.”

“Tell me, do you think Gabriel and I always loved each other? That we never needed to talk about it? Sure, it takes muchness, but anything worth having is worth doing, no matter how impossible it seems.”

“That, makes a lot of sense actually,” Nathalie replied.

“Perish the thought!” the other her laughed, “I’m much more a fan of nonsense. But, I suppose that’s why you’re my mirror. Fairfarren Nathalie, and good luck.”

They walked past each other and into the opposite mirrors. When she did, Nathalie was enveloped in a bright light. She blinked and suddenly she was back in her old life, with Gabriel and Adrien looking over her worriedly.

“Nathalie,” Adrien heaved a sigh of relief, “You’re alright!”

“What happened?” Nathalie put a hand to her head, feeling it throb uncomfortably.

“You were distracted by something in the mirror, then you collapsed,” Gabriel replied, expression immediately smoothing over into something unaffected. But he couldn’t hide the relief he felt from his eyes. And Nathalie noticed.

“I’m quite alright now, thank you sir,” Nathalie struggled to her feet. He immediately took her arm to steady her.

“Are you certain?” he asked, eyes still checking her over, “You’ve been acting strange the last few days.”

“I apologize,” Nathalie said, “My thoughts were perhaps, elsewhere.”

“And where were they?”

“I was thinking of… a milliner I used to know,” Nathalie evaded, “You would have liked him very much.”

“I doubt that,” Gabriel scoffed, “I don’t like very many people.”

“I’m aware,” Nathalie replied, “Be that as it may. I’m back, and I’m ready to work again.”

“Very good,” Gabriel nodded, “We have a very,” he glanced over to where Adrien was waiting on his car to school, “ _ Busy _ day ahead of us.”

“I wouldn’t want it any other way, sir,” Nathalie nodded.

She caught their reflections in the glass as they passed by it again. But the Gabriel in the mirror was holding tightly to Nathalie’s hand, and they stopped and waved to her. The blue Nathalie lifted up their conjoined hands and pointed to them to punctuate the point she had made in the in between. Nathalie nodded. Well, they did have a point. If Gabriel was the same in a nonsensical world, was it really so impossible for them to be together? Nathalie decided, six impossible things? She would settle for just one.


End file.
